In the world of Foraoios, there exist three dragons of unimaginable fury and strength. Each of these dragons have several children to carry on their legacy while the three great ones slumber till the Call. The Stormcallers are perhaps the most feared of the three offspring. A great storm always heralds their arrival, and as the great beast leaves, so does it take its storm.

 

This is a recording of an old village that had the misfortune to be in a Stormcallers flightpath on what would have been a peaceful morning.

  Noela and Chuwy wake up on a cloud. Actually, they wake up on a bed, but it almost feels like a cloud. As Noela sits up, she spots a young teenager sitting across the bed. His head rested on his arms as he stares a pair of young wyverns asleep in their cages. Black tousled hair cover his head, reminding Chuwy of a burnt birds nest he found a year earlier. His eyes were dark blue and big, graced by long lashes. He was deathly pale and his pointed ears alerted Noela that he was Terran like her. Though he looked 16, he had an air of an adult. His eyes revealed experience, while his scars showed a past he would probably never share.  He stared at the two of them from the corner of his eye, still facing the cages.

“You’re the reason they won’t wake up you know. This sleep is induced by the mother as a defence mechanism. Unfortunately you killed the fastest way to wake them up, so now you’ll need a lot of heat to break this spell. Don’t ask why, I don’t get magic either.” He said as he plunged his dagger into the desk and turned to face Chuwy and Noela.

“You only need to know me as Jack.” He said as his blood red lips split into a smile.

“Welcome to Isenpest, home of things and stuff I don’t care about. Out there is a man wielding the Black Star, a gift from death.” He pulled out a bun from his pocket and began eating it.

“We don’t have his name or even know what he looks like. All you need to know that He is a he, and the item he wields is extremely deadly. Shiala didn’t want me to tell you, but it makes more sense to, so I’m going to do it anyway. The Black Star is an item that grants and relieves death. We suspect that the death of the Everhigh Tree at Davin was due to the power of the star. Follow the trail of death and you will find our mysterious thief.”

In a single graceful movement, he stands and walks to the door. Before he opens it however, he turns around and gestures to his neck.

“Another thing, don’t forget about the collars, one wrong move and… BOOM!” he exclaims, his fingers spreading dramatically before he turns and leaves the room.

[OOC – find the old man in town.]

The first thing Noela felt was the painful throbbing on the side of her head. The next thing her senses touched was gentle sound of of water droplets, followed by the soft illumination of candles, revealing her Sai and Chuwys Nunchucks sitting far at the other end of the cave. Attempted movement revealed her entire body to be tied and restricted in a way she became very impressed with. To her left she heard Chuwy himself, murmur in unconsciousness as his eyes stayed closed and head lolled to his side.

As Chuwys eyes began to open and a groan escaped his lips, footsteps alerted Noela of the arrival of a visitor, or rather, the host to their unwilling party.

She strode in with clothes so black they looked to be woven from shadows themselves. She walked with elegance and grace, her red hair brilliant against the darkness of her clothes, another flame among the candles. Chuwy simply stared, his face expressionless.  Her face had not changed since yesterday, still smooth and beautiful, but a hint of cruelness had found its way onto it, or perhaps, it had always been there.

She turned to Noela and Chuwy, a smile parting her lips.

“Do you recognise this place?” She said, dramatically looking around the cave, before turning back to look directly into Noelas eyes.

“Well, even if you weren’t gagged, I can already predict your answer. Hunters such you two never care about such things do you?”

“This Cave belonged to a beautiful black beast who ruled the sky and forests here. She had arrived here peacefully months ago, hunting and protecting her young undisturbed since then. At least until she met with 2 desperate hunters, basking in the success of their slaughter.” They woman in black picked up the sai and twirled in between her fingers. She then threw the sai into the wall, a candle sliced along its way. She turned to face Chuwy, regaining her composure.

“I am Shiala, third daughter to Deaths Whisperer Raihole, here by his command to hunt and find the party foolish enough to steal from the Hand of Cain” She pulled out the sai embedded into the walL and brought it onto Noelas’ throat. “Instead of killing the foolish party, in his great mercy, our patriarch had chosen instead to give you a task.”

Shiala pulled out two collars from her pockets and placed them onto the necks of the pair. “These are cursed collars. Don’t bother trying to cut, tear or break them, they were made during the time of the Vellune and has been unbroken since. Ground rules, never mention our involvement and stay on task. You’ll also be given a caretaker of course; these collars will ensure you do as he says. Don’t give me that look. Anyway, you two have been tasked to find the Black Star.”

Chuwy raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t need to know what it does,” She continued, “simply know it is now in the hands of a man too dangerous to be kept in check. Steal it from him and you will be… generously pardoned.”

She patted Chuwy on the head and walked away. “I’m sure you have heard of the death of the last two dying Everhigh Trees?” She said stopping at the edge of the dark side of the cave. “This is related. When you wake up next, you will find yourselves in Isenpest. Find the old man and get back our Black Star. Oh and if you need a clue on how to find him, just follow the dead.”

The last thing Noela and Chuwy saw was Shiala vanishing into the shadows before the darkness gripped them as well, accompanied by a sharp pain on their heads.

 

Branches snag at your clothes, roots threaten to trip you with every step and strong gusts of wind attempt to blow you two away with every flap of the wyvern’s wings. Yet the two of you remain strong in your chase, unrelenting and fearless, running fervently without rest, despite the aching legs and sore arms neither of you slowed down.

At least until the wyvern escaped.

A massive tree appeared in front of the both of you and the second you lost keeping track of the wyvern was a second long enough for it to escape. While the wyvern had vanished from sight, neither of you lost its trail for the corpse of the Grand wolf created a trail of blood and flesh, and the two of you simply followed it.

The sun had already risen when the trail led you two to a cliff at least eight stories high. You two hear the cries of the wyvern clearly echo out what must be a cave at the top of the cliff. As the both of you watch the cliff, preparing to climb, you observe two small wyverns fly out. Their high pitched squeaks fill the air as they wrestle for a piece of meat between their jaws, each vying for a larger piece. Their beautiful black scales already formed yet their size indicate that they could not be more than a year old, hardly capable of hunting for themselves.

After a while, the roar of a mature wyvern shakes the air and the two young wyverns drop their meat. After what appears to be a short bicker, the two wyverns fly back into the cave and leave you two alone.

Looks like you found it.

 

[OOC – Do not forget the objective, but also do not be restricted by it.]

It all began with a hunt.

The two of you begin in the forests near a small village called Ravenwood, home to a single inn, an alchemist, two blacksmiths and a population of less than a hundred. The roads there were narrow and soggy with mud constantly clinging to your boots with every step you took. The smells of the forest assaulted you with every breath and the sounds of rustling leaves and bickering villagers filled the air. The bread was hard and water stale, their meat was tough and mead not worth the bill. Yet despite these, the two of you needed a place to stay and hide from the Hand of Cain after a failed attempt at stealing what neither of you knew was a sacred dagger, and Ravenwood was the best place to hide in, at least for now.

It has been 4 days since you two landed in Ravenwood and your funds have fallen low. To survive further as no word of the Hand of Cain have come through the grapevine, you two have taken up a small bounty from a nearby city to help Ravenwoods depraved form from becoming worse. Now the both of you are in the woods tracking a wild Wyvern that has been harassing the villagers and their poor slugish Boarvine.

It has been 5 hours since you two have begun the hunt and the sun is starting to take its seat at the top of the High sea. The trees stretch high into the High seas where some low swiming skyfish drift along the highest of branches. Their canopy providing limited shade from the powerful sun. The humidity of the woods also starts to slowly sap at your strengths as both your trained feet move along the forests floor avoiding every dead branch and dried leaf like ghosts in the night.

With your backs hunched and eyes sharpened the two of you continue searching for signs of a wyvern when you see a series of claw marks on a tree and a path of shallow destruction heading to your left. at the same time, the roar of two powerful beasts fills the air on your right. One of them could be the wyvern, however, the roars were too distorted and thus hard to tell.

The two of you now face a choice, the right or left?

Or, like how no tree has only 2 branches, other options are available with the skill of your wits and stats.

Objective: Find and return to Ravenwood with proof of the Wyverns death.